Police arrested for murder

Two police marksmen were arrested today on suspicion of murdering a man shot dead in the street.

The Met officers were also arrested on suspicion of gross negligence, manslaughter and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

Harry Stanley, 46, was killed outside a Hackney pub in 1999 by police who had been wrongly tipped off he was carrying a shotgun - in fact it was a table leg.

The arrests follow a review of the case by Surrey police and the Crown Prosecution Service after two inquests into the death of Mr Stanley, a painter and decorator.

Surrey police, who were called in to investigate the shooting as an outside police authority, said today that new forensic evidence had been discovered.

The men, understood to be Chief Inspector Neil Sharman and Pc Kevin Fagan from the Met's SO19 Firearms unit, were released on bail to return to a Surrey police station on 16 June pending further inquiries.

The move follows a campaign by the Stanley family and their supporters.

Solicitor Daniel Machover said: "Surrey police have updated the Stanley family on the arrests of two Metropolitan police officers.

"The family are again calling for the officers to be suspended from all duties."

Met Police Federation chairman Glen Smyth described the way the officers had been treated as a "scandal". He said: "For Surrey police to suddenly discover that they have apparently got new evidence after six years is incredible. We are continuing to give all our support to these officers."

Mr Stanley, a father of three, was shot in the head and hand yards from his home in Hackney just after leaving the Alexandra pub. He was carrying a blue plastic bag with a coffee table leg inside, which had just been repaired.

The two marksmen had been called to the area after a tip-off and mistook the table leg for a shotgun.

The first inquest in June 2002 returned an open verdict - a decision which his family subsequently had overturned at a High Court hearing.

A second inquest, at St Pancras Coroner's Court last October, returned a verdict of unlawful killing.

Mr Sharman and Pc Fagan were suspended in the wake of that ruling, sparking an unofficial "strike" by more than 125 officers in the Met's firearms unit.

The following month, both were allowed to return to work on "non-operational" duties.

Last month the unlawful killing verdict was quashed by a High Court judge who said there was "insufficient evidence" to support it.

Scotland Yard said the two officers arrested today remained at work, on non-operational duties, and had not been suspended. Assistant Commissioner Steve House said: "The investigations and inquiries into this tragic incident have now been running for nearly six years, and the time this has taken can only have increased the strain placed on all concerned.

"These officers were asked to make a split-second life and death decision as a result of the

armed policing duties they had volunteered for. Six years later their decision is still being examined by the legal system. How many of us would want to be in that position?

"Every day our armed officers find themselves in potentially dangerous situations where they are called upon to make splitsecond decisions based on the information available to them at the time."